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We were awakened by a call at 5:43 AM on Thursday, December 10^th. It was my Sister-in-law from Cincinnati. As Kathee fumbled for the phone in the dark, I was asking myself, “Who died?” Sadly, it was my 32 year old nephew who had died suddenly and unexpectedly of an aortic aneurysm. 38 months earlier we had been in Helen Georgia at his wedding and on December 14^th we went to Gainesville Georgia for his funeral. Sad event indeed! As I viewed his open coffin, I thought about the tremendous hope of the resurrection and the link between our Lord’s incarnation and that hope. This is reflected in Wesley’s “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”

Even His name speaks of that hope: “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Peter expounded on the linkage between His resurrection and the believer’s own future resurrection: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4).